The feat makes her the first U.S. female figure skater to land the jump during an Olympic competition.

Completing the triple axel at the start of her free skate in the figure skating team event on Monday morning (Sunday evening stateside) already set her apart from her competitors, all before she had even left the rink: None of the other women even planned to attempt the leap, which requires a forward takeoff and three-and-a-half rotations in the air.

Mirai Nagasu

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Such a feat puts Nagasu — a 24-year-old who finished just off the podium at the 2010 Games and who was controversially overlooked for a spot on the team in 2014 — in select company around the world.

What’s more, only two other U.S. female figure skaters have pulled off a triple axel in competition: First was Tonya Harding, during the national championship in 1991, followed by Kimmie Meissner in 2005.

Mirai Nagasu

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Of those, only Harding had also done a triple axel in international competition. Then Nagasu joined her in 2017, at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic.

“To nail that triple axel, I tripped a couple of times going into it, but told myself ‘No, I’m going to go for it and I’m not pulling back,’ ” she told NBC’s Andrea Joyce shortly after competing. “That was really special for me.”

“It’s a lot of pressure and stress to come out here — and it was my goal and my dream to be here and to be selected to the Olympic team,” Nagasu tells PEOPLE. “So I knew going into it the amount of responsibility that I was given, and so as athletes we want to represent our country to the best of our ability and you know — Midori Ito, Mao Asada and now Mirai Nagasu, all of Japanese heritage.”

“But I’m very fortunate that I’m American and so I’ll be the first U.S. lady to have landed the triple axel. And so today is a day of accomplishment for me,” she continues. “However, my Olympic experience is not over and I’m excited to go home and recover for a little bit and still soak in every second of this.”

People’s special issue The Best of Olympic Figure Skating is available now in the Time Inc. store, on Amazon, and wherever magazines are sold.

She also told PEOPLE last fall that she has a strategic reason for wanting to nail the jump.

“It’s all about the points in figure skating, and how you can outrank your opponents. And the triple is almost twice the points as a double,” she said at the time.

“It’s kind of like a board game, and that’s my king,” she said. “So I want to use it as many times as I can.”

“It was really cool and I love that they are trying to help me,” she continued. “At the end, I heard [Team USA pairs skater] Alexa [Scimeca Knierim] say ‘You did it, girl.’ That’s why we’re here, to be part of Team USA and support each other.”

Rippon later told NBC’s Mike Tirico that it was special to see his longtime friend (and Olympic Village roommate) land the historic jump on the same night he made his successful Olympic debut — and he reminisced about how, four years ago, they were eating hamburgers on a rooftop after both missed the cut for Team USA in the 2014 Sochi Games.

Four years ago, Adam Rippon and Mirai Nagasu were eating hamburgers on a rooftop after missing the #WinterOlympics.